Enamel basin with a large red carp and red double happiness at the bottom of the basin.

The clear, cool, freshly pumped water from the brown rust water press, reflected a young face in the hot sun.

The eyebrows are slightly raised, and the bridge of the nose is erect.

The eyes that should be clear and full of vitality have an indescribable sense of confusion.

This is the seventies, and he is now called Ji Yuanhai.

In my head, there are two memories that are contrasting.

One is a modern office worker who was born in the 90s and worked overtime every day after graduating from university.

The other is an old beggar who squatted in a corner begging and was lame.

The computer and mobile phone, the boss painting cakes, overtime, and good fortune in the memories of office workers...... Until it was dark.

What the old beggar remembers is a lifetime of ups and downs.

The old beggar's name is Ji Yuanhai, also known as Ji Cripple.

He was a tragedy all his life, born in the countryside, his father was unkind, his mother was unkind, his relatives were calculating, and in the end there was only one old life left, and all the acres and houses were occupied by his nephew.

Unable to stay in the countryside, he wandered all the way to the city, and finally died under the bridge.

And now, this young man who is reflected in the water of the enamel basin and has a confused face is the era of the sea whose legs are not lame and who is still young.

The sun was too poisonous to work this morning, and the sea heat of the era was dizzy, so I had to go home to rest.

Then I switched to a new kernel.

What is now in front of Ji Yuanhai is a tragic life from the 70s to the new century, "the dogs are shaking their heads".

"Uh-"

If you want to press out the water again, you must add "water diversion" to it and press it several times to press out the groundwater again.

This leaking sound also broke Ji Yuanhai's contemplation.

He turned his head to look around, the adobe courtyard wall, and a jujube tree with the thick mouth of a bowl.

The house is also made of adobe, and the hall sits on the north and faces south, and next to it is the east wing.

There are two rooms in the west row, the two-step wide hut is the kitchen house, and the large house is the west wing for the residents.

The grandparents live in the hall, the parents live in the east wing, and Ji Yuanhai and the eldest brother Ji Yuanshan live in the west wing.

"Yuan Hai!"

A middle-aged woman walked out of the east wing: "It's not early or late, why are you in a daze with the basin?" If your head doesn't get dizzy, fill the tank with water! ”

"Got it, mother."

Ji Yuanhai subconsciously agreed out of physical inertia, brought over the bucket, scooped the "water diversion" with a water scoop, pressed the water into the bucket, poured it into the water tank, and then carried the bucket back to press the water again.

In his early twenties, it was not difficult to do this little work, and it didn't take much effort to press four buckets of water and fill the tank.

As soon as Ji Yuanhai filled the water tank, his mother beckoned him to enter the East Wing.

"Yuan Hai, after dinner tonight, you have to know what to say and what not to say."

"Your grandparents and we are not of the same mind, you remember."

Hearing this, Ji Yuanhai nodded, not ambiguous.

As for my heart, I didn't take my mother's words seriously.

The rules in the house are that after dinner, go back to the house to sleep, and stay to chat if you have something.

What does it mean to be "something"?

Sometimes it's the grandparents who chat with their parents and talk about their parents' shortcomings; Sometimes it's the second and third uncle's families who come to eat; Sometimes, as tonight, we have to discuss "family matters."

The family event discussed tonight is a marriage, and Ji Yuanhai has a deep memory.

To put it simply, there is a female intellectual, named Lu Heling, who is in trouble, her parents are dead, and she has no hope of returning to the city.

The secretary of the production team said to Ji Yuanhai's grandfather, signaling that their family could take this opportunity to marry a daughter-in-law to Ji Yuanshan or Ji Yuanhai.

The reason why this incident is deeply remembered in Ji Yuanhai's impression is because he is a normal young man with a love for beauty.

The female intellectuals named Lu Heling are white and clean, handsome and lovely, compared with the bold girls who work in the countryside, it is like coming out of a painting, of course Ji Yuanhai likes it.

The process of discussing the marriage tonight is very clear in Ji Yuanhai's memory.

The grandparents wanted the eldest brother Ji Yuanshan to marry the female educated Lu Heling, but the mother resolutely did not allow it, and the father was in a dilemma.

Epoch Hill can only wait for the final decision.

And Ji Yuanhai is the "support ticket" pulled by his mother in advance.

What Ji Yuanhai remembers deeply is that the whole family is arguing about whether the eldest brother should marry Lu Heling, and no one considers his choice; He could only watch the girl he liked being discussed by them repeatedly, and he couldn't even say anything superfluous.

Ji Yuanhai's mother said that "your grandparents and we are not of the same heart", which basically belongs to the level of rural women's openness, and has no credibility.

Ji Yuanhai not only didn't intend to believe it, but even believed in his grandparents even more.

Because memory told him that in the matter of whether Ji Yuanshan married Lu Heling or not, his mother had other thoughts, and she was not as reliable as her grandparents.

There is a reason why Ji Yuanhai became an old cripple and died in a foreign land in the end.

Situations like this that prioritize big brother and consider others will happen many times in the future.

The hot sun lasted for a long time, and after listening to his mother's "explanation", Ji Yuanhai went out to cut a basket of grass and sent it to the production team site.

Mowing the grass was an easy task for him.

Although Ji Yuanhai was dizzy in the morning, in the era of earning work points, no one could be idle, and he couldn't afford to be idle, so he still had to find a way to make up for it.

This basket of grass is about 20 catties, which can be used to raise rabbits and pigs, and finally counts two jobs.

If he works a full day of normal work, as a normal laborer, he can get eight to ten points; Now only mowing the grass and getting two points of work is already a "loss".

At about six o'clock in the afternoon, the whole family came back for dinner.

Grandparents, parents, eldest brother Ji Yuanshan, Ji Yuanhai and the family are eating pickles around the hall house.

Wotou is sweet potato noodles, sun-dried sweet potatoes, ground into noodles with a stone mill, and then made into a nest head.

If it is eaten carefully in the coarse grains of later generations, it may have a different flavor; But at this time, the sweet potato nest only has an unpalatable taste and a rough feeling that is difficult to swallow......

After Ji Yuanhai had a hard time eating, considering that he had to fill his stomach, he also stubbornly followed his habit and ate half of his nest.

"Yuan Hai, are you better?"

Grandpa Ji Yuanhai asked.

"Grandpa, I'm much better." Ji Yuanhai said.

Grandpa Ji Yuanhai nodded: "After eating, don't go back to the house to sleep first, let's discuss your eldest brother's marriage." ”

"Dad, according to me—" Ji Yuanhai's mother said.

"I'll talk about it after eating." Ji Yuanhai's grandmother said.

The family stopped talking and ate in silence.

After eating, Ji Yuanhai's grandmother and mother were busy serving the pickles and putting away the nest head.

Then Grandpa Ji Yuanhai took out the dry tobacco bag, dug a few times in the tobacco bag with the cigarette holder, filled the tobacco shreds, and lit them slowly.

The smell of fireworks wafted through the dark adobe house, one bright and one extinguished.

"Boss, eldest daughter-in-law."

"Let's talk about it, how to handle Wonshan's marriage well?"

The old man said, his voice slightly hoarse after the fireworks.